Hamilton Library completed in time for renovation
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
The new Hamilton Library looks pretty much like the old one. That's the way they planned it nearly 30 years ago.
When Phase 2 of the library on the UH-Manoa campus was built in the early 1970s, no one would have guessed that Phase 3 would take nearly three decades to be added on.
In Hawai'i, though, politics happen. The best-laid plans of librarians and administrators often go astray at the Legislature. Years came and went, and financing a library extension, even one so evidently required for quality higher education, wasn't a priority with the people who hold our collective purse strings. (Hey striking teachers: Sound familiar?).
Phase 3 was supposed to be finished by 1985 at the latest. In 1989, the Legislature even appropriated money for the building, but that got killed by a former university president who thought he had better uses for the money.
Despite faculty worries, student protests, legislative testimony, accreditation threats, editorials and newspaper story after newspaper story noting the dire need for an expansion, nothing happened. It wasn't until 1997 that the Legislature finally got around again to appropriating money for the addition.
From the outside, the new building really does look like it could have been built 30 years ago. Same strong, monolithic design. Same earth tones. Same materials. Even some of the same plantings outside. (Two bridges connecting old and new parts of the building probably are the most dramatic part of the architecture.)
Inside, though, it's a different story. Book stacks don't change much, but 30 years can make a world of difference elsewhere.
Anyone who has ever spent a frozen hour or two studying in Hamilton will be glad to know that the new building is warmer. At least the parts of it reserved for humans are.
Interim University Librarian Jean Ehrhorn, who started working in Hamilton back when Phase 2 was just being completed, says advances in air-conditioning technology have made it possible to keep the stacks cool (good for books) and keep reading areas warmer (good for reading and napping).
In all, there's room for more than 1 million books in the new stacks. And there are plenty of high-tech features that no one even dreamed of back in the 1970s planning stage: high-tech freezers (minus 35 degrees) to kill invading bugs, a large area to preserve and repair old and damaged books, and plenty of telecommunications and online connections.
There's more to come, too. Now that Phase 3 is finished, renovation work is beginning on Phases 1 and 2. Eventually, there will be just one nice, big Hamilton Library. Just how they planned it all those years ago.
Mike Leidemann's columns appear Thursdays and Saturdays in the Advertiser.
